The Rs 1,100-crore, Chennai-based TTK Group, plans to invest Rs 250 crore to set up new factories across India to boost its production capacity from four million pressure cookers to 10 million and also expand its non pressure cooker range of cooking appliances by the same number.

“We will be investing Rs 250 crore for setting up new factories and expansion of our plants pan India. The capacity ramp-up will be across its Hosur, Coimbatore and Roorkie production facilities,” said TT Jagannathan, chairman at TTK Group of Companies known for its household brand Prestige. The company is also setting up new factories near Baroda in Gujarat and Nashik in Maharashtra. “We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government and I am going there tomorrow to purchase the land,” said Jagannathan.

Of the proposed investment, Rs 200-crore would be through internal accruals while the remaining Rs 50-crore would be tied-up through bank debt.

The company is also looking at acquisitions of brands in the kitchenware range in the domestic market. “Morgan Stanley has been appointed as the investment banker for this purpose,” he said.

The company hopes to expand its range of cookware for sale in the domestic market and for exports too by introducing new products. “Some of our new product introductions have been very successful. For instance we sold 20,000 microwave pressure cookers within one hour in Germany. In India too, we could have sold more if we had more capacity. We are seeing larger demand come from C class towns,” said Jagannathan.

Pressure cookers sold under the Prestige brand account for 36 per cent of the company’s total sales. The abolition of excise duty on branded pressure cooker has helped sales, as has the advent of modern retail. The company is experimenting with involving non-government organisations or NGOs and self-help groups to sell pressure cookers in rural India.

The company which expects to keep up the almost 61 per cent sales growth seen in the quarter ended December 2010 plans to reenter the branded ready to cook food segment. “We plan to relaunch our Fryums brand in the next financial year. We had discontinued this brand when excise duties were imposed but we feel that with sufficient sell through possibility in modern retail the time is ripe for us to reenter the ready to cook business,” he said.

The company sells stoves, mixers, grinders, grills, coffee makers, toasters and even chimneys and modular kitchens.

In the FMCG business run under TTK Healthcare too, the group is looking to acquire brands. “This business is growing its sales at around 20 per cent per annum,” said Jagannathan.

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Posted by Yogendra Oza on 21 January, 2011 4:04:25 PM IST #